That's absolutely brilliant!I can envisage a scene where the Imperial Master views The Great Skull Fleet from his command deck laughing at their initial salvo of clockwork torpedoes and then mocking their steam-powered cannons, until the Neutron Star Matter particle-tipped shells start punching massive holes into his Battle Cruisers (I guess they could pass through energy shielding?) and then watch dumbfounded as they start opening up with Blue Crystal Lasers. While this is happening Imperial battle ship captains can Inform The Imperial Master that their electronic radar and targeting systems can't even detect or lock onto The Great Skull fleet. That would be a great panic moment for The Imperial Master and a real analogue over digital statement.I really love how all these weapon systems are powered in an anachronistic fashion, but due to particular elements from the other dimension, they become super weapons. you could even have the clockwork torpedoes scoring some hits, once some of the enemy ship's sheilds were down just to show their own worth in the right situation.All great stuff this. Were you thinking of having the fleet as just sailing ships or possibly some steam liner affairs as well? Will have to do some sketching, it's been a busy week, but I'll try to put pen to paper next week.

Heh heh, really pleased you like the "Analogue" weapons systems I think it would be brilliant to have that scene you describe, with an over-confident Imperial Master suddenly getting trounced by such befuddling luddite tech! I can't wait to read it.The enormous inertia of the Neutron Shells could weaken and eventually break through Imperial energy sheilds, to give some good old-fashioned Steampunk hardware a chance to shine Now here's some more of my GSW musings:I was thinking of the GSW fleet being made up of a variety of ship types, for fun and interest. As the GSW has not been at war for countless Demi-Parsecs, it's peoples have almost "forgotten" how to fight. That's exactly where I have Barry Hercules shining through on the GSW, getting the 'ol fighting spirit back into the GSW folk and helping to equip their ships for battle.Such ships would include Sailing ships, Pleasure liners, Nebula Trawlers and Cargo barges, et al...A sort of "Rag tag Fleet" a-la Original Battlestar Galactica.But how many ships do you require for the GSW fleet to have? 20 maybe?Also, it would help me to know how long Shiro and team have been aboard the Great Skull's ship prior to the start of ROTDW. As I could write about them roaming through the ship and discovering lots about it's Steampunk tech. But this would only be possible if they had been on board for a short time.If during TROM's last chapters, the X-bomber crew had spent a long while on the GS Ship, then they would already know about it's tech maybe?It would also be handy to know how long Lamia has been in Humanoid form prior to ROTDW beginning. As this will help me to plan the initial chapter out.I have some ideas about the workings of the GSW and it's peoples, and how they interact with Shiro, Lee, Barry and Lamia.Especially John Lee, who I plan to have some possible love interest here...?

20 ships seems like a good figure for the great skull fleet. The Imperial Alliance is going to have a fair sized fleet (the Imperial Master's ship alone is the size of a planet), so the good-guys are going to be fairly outnumbered, but they win because of superior tactics. I'll have to to work out who's got what and who's attacking who where, nearer the time, but yeah 20 GSW ships sounds right.The Great Skull saves Hercules, Lee and Shiro at the very end of the final Chapter of TROM, with Lamia's reveal being the final cliffhanger sting. Then ROTDW picks up the story a day or two after this, so you're perfectly set up to allow the crew to marvel at the steam punk tech inside the ship. I'm revealing very little about The Great Skull in TROM so your chapters would be a great opportunity to reveal a few things, like a proper description of the inside of his ship.It's Mills & Boon time. My main emotional webs in the Stories:Shiro loves Lamia, but is unsure what this love is or what it can be in real terms as they are effectively brother and sister (It's a Star Wars thang). He also likes Emma Steel, but has yet to realise that they are meant to be together.Lamia loves Shiro, but again, it's the whole brother and sister thing + She is effectively married to Halley's spirit and knows she has responsibilities as the F01 which means no chance of human love for her even if she wanted it.Hercules has a thing for Lamia, but it's fairly subtle and unrequited. I think that was present in the show, for instance, the time Shiro got a knuckle breakfast from Hercules after he inadvertently put Lamia into danger.Emma Steel LURVES Shiro. But is very resentful of Lamia and Shiro's father for finding her. She will eventually come to terms with Lamia and get her guy. And the professor will become a father figure for her.Yeah Lee needs to bag himself a gal. I'd thought about that myself as the poor guy is often used purely as comic relief. I intend to flesh out both Hercules and Lee a little in the coming 'escalation chapters' of my story, so it's not all jive talking and fat jokes (Can't believe one of the 1984 annual stories refers to John Lee as Fatty Lee - that's a bit mean).

Going off Star Trek, fatness is a disease that is eradicated by the 23rd/24th Century.This stuff is really awesome. I think you'd be hard-pushed to create an energy field forceful enough to repel a neutron star fragment. Not only is it the mass but the gamma waves that it throws out.

Yes you are right there Crash, I'd forgotten about the Gamma Rays. But I have come up with a solution. I shall throw in a rare "Vanessa Fantasy Joker" and use my "Blue Crystal" material to come to the rescue.As alluded to earlier, I have the GSW (name please ) folk mining the blue crystal, initially as a rare gemstone, but then, when they discover its useful "laser beam-like" properties, it also becomes a handy Imperial Alliance-trouncing weapon So to counter the effects of both the Gamma Radiation from the Neutron Particles in the shells, and the immense gravitational pull of the things, I'll have them placed in caskets lined with this mysterious blue crystalline substance, found only on the GSW. Which will magically nullify (like a kind-of Faraday Cage but for high-density radioactive matter) the deadly Neutron properties until the shell is fired from the steam cannon.Right, onto more GSW musings:OK I'll rustle up a fleet of about 20 GSW ships, of various types, for you to use Shane.Thanks for the plot hints, I'm quite pleased as I can now write about Shiro and crew roaming the GSW ship, "discovering" lots of Steampunk tech.I'm glad you don't mind me having free rein to have some fun here I can also work on the emotions of the characters, very subtly, to allow you to ellucidate later on.I can hint at Shiro's love for Lamia, but also his growing feelings for Emma Steele.Whereas Lamia is bound to Halley, but cannot brush aside her feelings for Shiro.Into all this I can add Barry's latent feelings for Lamia as well, brewing away under the surface...I am forming some ideas about the GSW and it's structure:I envisage (if you agree) a world with a distant past history of war, and the pace of tech that such events bring about, followed by Demi-parsecs of peace, where the tech stagnated and stayed in the Steam age. A small and heavily industrialised planet full of chimneys and smoke and machinery. Roaring furnaces and deep mines. Steam power abounds, with GSW versions of Brunel, Stevenson and Watt, galore.One consequence of all this is a slow decline in natural vegetation, flora and fauna. Luckily, in steps a prominent botanist to the rescue, and creates, through cross-pollenation and simple genetic manipulation, an atmospheric-replenishing weed-like plant. Then this quickly takes hold, wiping out most other indigenous plants, like a Cane-Toad but in weed form. It repairs the atmosphere and verily thrives on the industrial pollution endemic in GSW society.So to avoid starvation, the GSW folk, following in the illustrious footsteps of the "Eccentric GSW Da Vinci", take to the stars in their cosmic sailing ships, and travel to the GSW's only moon, the lush, green and unspoilt garden planet of Carpathia. Here they are able to farm and grow all the food they need for their homeworld. Which is transported back to the GSW world in cosmic sailing barges. This special moon is closely protected by the botanists, a fierce "green" political group from the GSW whose pledge is to keep Carpathia free from industrial pollution, by keeping the GSW supplied with food, in exchange for a pollution-free zone around the moon.Thus the GSW has existed for many K-Parsecs.If this is all OK, I'll move onto the GSW peoples next, and how John Lee finds love...

I think these ideas are great and I'm totally happy with whatever you want to do with your chapters. The description of the GSW is very interesting and I can picture it in my mind already. I like your solution to the problems a planet would face that had embraced steam power to such an extent.It will be great fun to eventually sketch out the GSW Fleet from your descriptions. And indeed it'll be really interesting to discover what the inside of The Great Skull's ship is like as the only thing I've described so far is the casket that The Great Skull sleeps in between missions. I love the fact I'm going to learn things about my own creation.

Glad you like my ideas for...Aeolus I'm glad you are enjoying our writing collaboration. I think it's great fun, and not something I've done before. It is cool to write something, and then someone adds to it, and so you discover some more about what you'd fiirst written, and vice-versa! Very intense!I'm also looking forward to actually seeing images of the Aeolian Fleet. Now I never thought any creation of mine would make it into reality as an image... Loving the fact that The Great Skull sleeps in a casket Almost like a time-travelling vampire Maybe this casket is lined with Aeolian Blue Crystal to counter the Gamma rays from Trels Time Engine's Neutron Star Matter Core?Actually, some Aeolian Blue Crystal will be essential on the GS Time Ship, to protect Shiro and Friends from the Gamma Rays and gravitational pull from the Time Engine.Now to some more Aeolian musings I can picture Trel at war, serving on the king's ship, deep in the Nebula. This is where he first comes into contact with a Neutron Star fragment. This fragment could be thrown from the core by the powerful plasma jets that blast from the Star's surface. Normally such a fragment would have killed Trel and any other Aeolians nearby, but being on the King's ship, in the Kings own private quarters, the King and Trel could be discussing battle tactics. Remember the Blue Crystal has hithertwo been only sought for it's gem-like qualities and status. The King's quarters could be lined with sumptuous Blue Crystal slabs (not unlike marble) which protect the King and his advisors and Trel from the Gamma Rays and Gravitational pull. Trel realises this and later uses his ship to trawl the Nebula for more fragments using a Blue Crystal net, to power his time engine.The remaining unused fragments could be stored in a Blue Crystal casket at his dwelling in Beltarus, and get re-discovered once he had gone, and used to arm the deadly Neutron Star Shells.This re-arming will be Barry's task on Aeolus, plus training the "sailors" from Aeolus to battle the Imperial Alliance.Since the Great Skull's previous return visit, all Aeolians (including the King) have placed him in the highest regard, and he has god-like status. Thye will do anything for him (luckily for Earth!).Futher to my previous musings about Aeolus and it's society and history, I can add a further invention into the melting pot:Namely the Sky Winch. One of Trel's earliest inventions, this ancient machine has it's top winch house on the edge of Aeolian atmosphere, almost like a satellite in geo-stationary orbit. This contraption is used to haul the ships up from the great lake on Aeolus (like a boat-lift on a canal) and up to the edge of space to enable them to enter and leave the gravitational pull of Aeolus, and "fly off" into space.I envisage the current Aeolians as a race of Engineers, Scientists, Sailors, Miners and Botanists. They need to re-learn the ways of war.They worship both their king and their god.Their Steampunk tech is fuelled from the elements trawled from the Nebula, and they themselves are fed from the garden moon of Carpathia.I see them as short, swarthy folk, whereas Trel was always towering above them, he was always different.Aeolians are short, stocky, slightly tubby, but well suited to life mining the Blue Crystal, or Sailing the stars, or Engineering their Steam machines.As communications are very important on Aeolus, the huge Inference Engine House, containing the great mechanical steam-powered "computer" with it's master communication disc and Analogue Transmission equipment is considered very special. The technicians who operate it are highly regarded in Aeolian society.Particularly short and chubby, these chosen few are the hub of communications between the many cities and also the many ships, via the small clockwork communication machines with their encoder discs. So as X-Bomber communications expert, John Lee gets on with these folk like a house on fire. He helps to create clockwork translators for Shiro and Barry to use, so they can all speak with the Aeolians. Lamia does not need this, as the F-01 she can speak all languages. She initially helps John to create an English to Aeolian decoder disc, the most prized disc of all, and the one which will eventually be fitted into the "Steampunked" X-Bomber.As John works with the communications technicians, he gains their respect, admiration and finally finds his true love in the form of a similarly short and chubby young lady technician. Her name is Horatia, and she is the one who ends up on X-Bomber, to operate the Steampunk ship alongside PPA, and maintain comms between the Aeolian fleet and EDF in the final battle.Hope this is all OK, please comment and change as you see fit.I just wanted John Lee to find a bt of love himself, as he'd been the butt of so many jokes in TOAS.

I'm 'avin' it! Yeah, I'm really enjoying this collaborative process and have to say that the ideas that are coming out for Aeolus are so good that I can't help but think that there should be a series of non Star Fleet related books that revolve around this alone. Really chuffed that there's going to be such a supremely cool steam punk element to ROTDW.Having Horatia as the engineer and Lee's true-love is a great idea! I totally agree, poor old Lee has taken a lot of flak over the years and it's about time he gets the girl. I can imagine the initial banter between Horatia and PPA on the steam punk X-Bomber. A real clash of ideals to begin with, but I'm sure they'll get on eventually.

I'm really pleased that you actually like these musings on steampunk life, far away in the stars...I'm having a lot of fun doing all this I do worry that the ROTDW Steampunk chapters on Aeolus and the life of The Great Skull and Trev Vitruvius might take over the ROTDW's main plot somewhat...?I'm not sure how much to write, and how much detail to go into?You are right about it possibly needing it's own storyline entirely. It has quite tenuous links with Star Fleet's original series, I do worry that Star Fleet fans viewing the forum might get a bit annoyed or disinterested as it's not really Star Fleet any more...?But no-one's forcing them to read this And any action on this quiet forum is to be applauded IMHO.When you mentioned about a possible Steampunk spin-off series, involving X-Bomber, that got me thinking in real detail about the whole Steampunk idea.I thought that I'd create a really detailed and intricate world of Steampunk that could be used in a spin-off series all of it's own. Maybe Trel's adventures and the Steampunk world could have their own series one day?It's so cool that you're amenable to Horatia being John Lee's girl. I have them as gentle, close and happy lovers, two of a kind, neither of which would take any more lip from Barry!

(Vanessa @ Apr. 04 2011,01:28)QUOTEI do worry that the ROTDW Steampunk chapters on Aeolus and the life of The Great Skull and Trev Vitruvius might take over the ROTDW's main plot somewhat...?I'm not sure how much to write, and how much detail to go into?You are right about it possibly needing it's own storyline entirely. It has quite tenuous links with Star Fleet's original series, I do worry that Star Fleet fans viewing the forum might get a bit annoyed or disinterested as it's not really Star Fleet any more...?But no-one's forcing them to read this And any action on this quiet forum is to be applauded IMHO.I think the TV series has already set a precedent for exploring a much broader fantasy world rather than just a focus on space war and military hardware alone. Plenty of kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses feature in the show as well a Mon Mon or too. The Skull, on his own, certainly legitimizes the use of some steam punk aesthetics and to be honest if any show was going to have an eventual leaning in this direction then Star Fleet would have been it. So no worries there at all, Vanessa. You've got Lamia, Shiro, Lee and Herc to ground it in the traditions of Star Fleet, plus there's the whole B plot of a knackered X-Bomber trying to get back to Earth which is going to hark back to the episodic adventures of the TV series. So with these two alternating adventures I don't think it's going to be too jarring.Like you say, no one is being forced to read any of our stuff at gun point and very few people seem to have picked up the creative ball and ran with it themselves, so the sky's the limit really when it comes to content, I feel. Although all of the fanfics so far seem to hold onto the core spirit of Star Fleet despite exploring other areas, so it's win win. I think The Great Skull World chapters will be great and a hark back to episodes like The Planet of War (One of my favourites, and not just because of Keeli). I'm not wanting to limit the amount you want to write, but I guess for balance and maybe as a guide for yourself, 6-8 chapters seems about right as that's the amount I'll be writing for the first part of the story.You can choose how much of the history of Aeolus you want to give away in your chapters, although I'm liking all of your ideas so far, regarding the materials they need to find and the whole training of the ship's crews. Seems like there's a lot of potential for adventure and intrigue.I do think there is a lot of potential in Aeolus and your engineering-based ideas and we should definitely go back there at a later date and tell some more stories that aren't chained to any Star Fleet continuity. I think I mentioned that I wanted to do a steam punk project (Maybe a comic or illustrated book) and this would fit the bill. One battle at a time I guess, though.